Typewriting machine



F. A. HART TYPI'IRITING MACHINE Filed July 16, 1924 Feb, 10, 1925.

'INVENTOR W J. 12.x

' ATTORNEY WIT'NESEFSZ Q I K .1. 5M.

Patented Feb. 10, 1925.

PATENT OFFICE.

UNITED STATES FREDERICK A. HART, or NEW BRITAIN,

CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO REMINGTON TYPEWRITER COMPANY, OF ILION', NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

'IYPEXVRITING MACHINE.

Application fired July 16,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK A. HART, citizen of the United States, and resident of New Britain, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Typewriting Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in the tabulating' mechanism of typewriting machines which comprise tabulating push-keys located at the front of the keyboard and hand-actuated stop-setting means, the object of the invention being to diminish the projection of the push-keys from the frame and to prevent trouble that is sometimes caused by an accidental depres sion of the stop-setting key which is commonly located within the frame. The invention consists of the mechanism which is herein particularly described and which is defined in the claims.

On the accompanying sheet of drawings on which like reference numerals designate like parts in different views,

Figure 1 is a fragmental side and sectional elevation of portions of a machine embodying the invention;

Figure 2, a front elevation of a fragment of the keyboard frame and front elevation of the rod-frame and scale-retainer herein described; and

Figure 3, a rear elevation of the stop-setting hand-lever herein described, and of a fragment of the top plate of the machine.

The drawings illustrate the invention applied to a Remington typewriting machine having the construction of many Remington machines which are in common public use, except that such well-known machines contain. devices which this invention supplants in machines which embody it. But the invention is or may be applicable to machines not manufactured by the Reming ing Company and to machines comprising various forms of tabulating mechanism.

The framework of Remington machines above referred to comprises the base 1, the post 2 and three other posts affixed to the base, the top plate 3 resting on and aflixed to the posts, and the tabulator frame a affixed to the top plate and base and projecting over the rear port-ion of the top plate. The front portion 5 of the base is the keyboard frame, and the cross bar 6 forms the 1924. Serial No. 726,240.

front of this frame and front of the base. The tabulator frame 41 supports a set of angularly movable key-actuated stops including the stop 7 which are alike, are arranged side by side, and rock on the pin or shaft 8 when they are actuated. The upper and forwardly facing ends of these stops are close to the framework 4; when the stops are in their normal positions, in which springs tend to keep them, the spring 9, indicated by dotted lines being one of these springs. The stop-bar 10 supports other stops which are arranged thereon side by side and so that their median planes are at letter space distances apart and which may be separately set on the bar in front and rear positions by moving them transversely of its length. The stop 11 which is one of these stops and like all of the others in size and shape is shown in its front position on the stop bar. This bar is attached to the arm 12 and another like it and these arms are fast on the platen carriage 13 of the ma chine. These stops are called carriagestops.

The key-actuated stops pass at their lower ends behind push-rods 14. which extend under the keyboard frame and project forward from the plane of its front face and to which tabulating keys 15 are aflixed at the front ends of the rods. The push rods are supported and guided near their front ends by a bar which is attached to the front 6 of the base and which forms also a support for the commonly used tabulator-scale or index.

When a tabulator key 15 is pushed inward to the limit of its movement a particular key-actuated stop is projected from the frame a into the path of anycarriage-stop that has been set in its rear position on the stop-bar 10, and thereupon the carriage is released from the escapement. If the carriage, which then starts to run, brings the carriage stop into contact with the projected key-actuated stop the carriage is arrested by the col-action of the stops.

The above described framework and mechanism are embodied in the aforesaid well-known Remington machines and are shown and described in patents that have been granted for much of the mechanism, one of which is Patent No. 1,425,825 granted to E. E. Barney, Aug. 15, 1922. I

But the push-rods of these machines, as

is shown in the above indicated patent, are supported and guided by the front of the scale-support, so that the keys are, and must be as far in front of the scale-support when they are in their normal positions as the puslrrods are required to move inward Obviously the nearer the keys are'to the front of the frame, the more convenient it is to work them, the less liable are the puslr rods to be bent or broken, and the smaller may be the boxes which the machines are transported. One of the improvements constituting the invention enables these tabulating-keys to set much closer to the frame than they can be in machines which contain the front-rod support shown in the aforesaid patent.

The improved rod-frame and scale-support included in this invention is a unitary structure in'the nature of a bar of peculiar form that is attached to and extends lengthwise of the front cross-bar of the keyboardframe 5. This peculiar bar is preferably composed of the upper scale-supporting section 16, the lower rod-simporting and rodguiding section 17, and the intermediate section 18, but these sections, and especially section 18, might be more or less modified in respect to form, or the upper and lower sections might be united by a connection that would not form a section as distinct as is section 18. This bar has lugs 19 which extend backward from section 17 next to its upper edge and upward behind section 18, between which and the upper portions of the lugs is a space, the width of which about equals the thickness of sect-ion 17. These lugs are fastened to cross bar 6 of the frame 5 by screws 20 passing through the lugs and thence upward into portions 21 of the cross bar which are on the back of the portion which forms the lower edge of the cross bar and which passes in front of the upper portions of the lugs and behind sections 16 and 18 of the scale-support and rodframe. The top of section 17 is under and close to the lower edge of cross bar 6 and the front face of this section is in or close to the plane of the front face of the cross bar. The push-rods 14 pass through holes in the baclm'a'rdly off-set section 17, the bottom 22 of section 16 is above a plane that passes over the hubs 23 of the push-keys, and in section 18, the front face of which is under the rear portion of section 16, are recesses 24 which extend backward to the plane of the front face of section 17, and into which the hubs of the keys pass when the keys are operated. The scale lies on the inclined face 25 of section 16 which fat-eeltends from the upper rear edge 26 to the lower front edge 27 of the section, and on which the scale is held by the scale-retainer 28. When the keys are operated the inner ends of the hubs move inwardto section 17 and the heads'of the keys pass under the lower edge of the scale-retainer. V

The stop-setting means, which machines heretofore manufactured and sold have contained, consists of an angularly movable-stopsetting arm on the top plate near the stopbar, a key within the keyboard frame, and

connecting devices through'which inotionis imparted from the key to the stop setting arm. Such means is shown, for instance, in Patent No. 971,953 granted to Q. lVoodward, Oct. 4-, 1910. More or less trouble is caused from the setting of a stop by accidental and unnoticed depression of the key. Not only does the improved stop-setting means in cluded in this invention prevent trouble from being thus causedi but it is simpler than the commonly used stop-setting means and can be applied to and removed from machines with unusual facility for it is a unit and it stands on and is attached by two screws to the top plate. It is composed of the r0ck-shaft 29, the bracket 30, the uni tary lever-arm 31 and stop-lug 32, the splin 33, and the stop-setting arm 34, so connectec together that they constitute a springpressed stop-setting hand-lever mounted on the arms 35 and 36 of the bracket which is attached by the screws 37 and 38 to the top plate 3.

The rock shaft passes through and has hearings in the arms 35 and 36. The integral hand-lever and stop-lug is fast on the rock-shaft and close to arm 36. The spring is held at one end by the arm35 and at the other by the collar 39 fast on the rock-shaft, and tends to keep the stop lug 32 in contact with the top plate. Arm 3 1 is fast on the rock=shaft at its right-hand and projects in front of the stop-bar 10. When the stop-lug is in contact with the top-plate the rear edge of arm 34 is close to the path in which the carriage stops 11 travel when they are in their normal positions on the stop-bar. The arm 31 extends behind and below the top plate and has the finger rest 40 next to its 'rearand lower end. The operator sets a stop or stops by reaching to the back of the machine and pulling forward the finger rest 40 of this stop-setting hand-lever. The upper end of arm 34.- swings backward and the arm pushes the stop or stops backward on the stop-bar. The lever is restored to ts normal position by the spring 33 which turns the rock-shaft until the stop-lug strikes the top-plate.

lVhat I claim as new and desire to secure by. Letters Patent, is

1. In a typewriting machine which comprises tabulating keys affixed to push-rods that extend under the keyboard frame and project forward from the plane of its front face, a unitary rod-frame and scale-support consisting of a bar that is composed of an upper scale-supporting section, a lower rod supporting and rodguiding section, and an intermediate section, and that has rearwardly-extending lugs fastened to the keyboard frame, the lower section of the bar being underneath the keyboard frame and the front face of the section being in or close to the plane of the front face of that frame, the upper section being in front of the keyboard frame and the lower side of the section being above a plane that passes over the hubs of the keys on the push-rods, and the intermediate section containing recesses behind the keys and the front of the section being underneath the upper section, the form of the bar and its arrangement on the keyboard frame being such that the push-keys are normally close to the vertical plane containing the lower front edge of the upper section of the bar and pass underneath that section when they are operated.

2. In a typewriting machine, which comprises tabulating keys affixed to push-rods that extend under the keyboard frame and project forward from the plane of its front face, a unitary rod-frame and scale-support consisting of abar that comprises an upper scale-supporting section and a lower rearwardly-offset rod-supporting and rod-guiding section, and that has rearwardly-extending lugs fastened to the keyboard frame, the form of the bar and its arrangement on the keyboard frame and its relation to the tabulating keys being such that the keys pass underneath the scale and back to the lower section of the bar when they are operated.

3. In a typewriting machine which comprises a stop-bar mounted on the carriage and having on it tabulating stops that are separately movable thereon by stop-setting means to positions in which they are set for use, a spring-pressed stop-actuating handlever composed of a rock-shaft that extends lengthwise of the stop-bar, a bracket which stands on the top-plate of the machine and in which the rock-shaft is mounted, a unitary lever-arm and stop-lug which is affixed to the rock-shaft at the left end of the shaft, which arm extends behind and below the top-plate and has a finger rest at its rear and lower end, and which stop-lug is in front of the shaft and normally makes con- .tact with the top-plate, a spring which is held on the shaft and tends to hold the stoplug against the top-plate, and a stop setting arm affixed to the right end of the rockshaft, substantially as shown and described.

Signed at the borough of Manhattan, city of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York this 14th day of July, A. D. 1924.

FREDERICK A. HART.

Witnesses CHARLES E. SMITH, LILLIAN NELSON. 

